By Sarah Tone, Communications Coordinator
14-year-old Victoria Lee (Winnipeg) is half of Team Manitoba’s female doubles team that earned the Herd’s first medal of the 2023 Canada Games – a silver in a hard-fought match against Ontario.
Victoria started playing table tennis when she was nine years old, and one of her keys to success is to always have fun playing. On her Canada Games experience so far, there’s one thing that stands out alongside the competition.“It’s been really fun so far. I’ve got to play the best youth in each province and it’s been fun seeing all the provinces come together for one competition. Aside from playing the matches, trading pins has been a big part of games, and it’s been really fun.”
With so many athletes competing at Games hoping for a medal, Victoria is filled with excitement as she beams about crossing that off her list early on.
“I want to play my best and continue to focus. And I got one of my goals already! To win a medal.”
The Canada Games are often an athlete’s first introduction to a multi-sport games environment, a trip away from home, unfamiliar schedules and routines, and so many new things to take in. This week, Victoria is working on her focus to eliminate distractions.
“I think I sometimes I am really aware of my surroundings, the people watching, when people make announcements, or just the recording and the camera, I get distracted by those things so I’m trying to stay in the moment while focusing on the point that I’m playing.”
Victoria is competing in four table tennis events: female doubles, mixed doubles, female singles, and female team. Her singles game is strong. She can focus on her own skills and her own preparation. And in doubles, she looks forward to being paired with teammates she doesn’t get to play with often.
“I guess my strength is that I stay pretty calm throughout the whole match. I can make sure that my partner, if I’m playing doubles stays calm when they’re playing, I mean I don’t really get frustrated or mad too often at myself so that really helps.”
Victoria is competing in the female team event tomorrow morning, and the female singles event on Thursday.
